द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

36 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE
Mr. Gandhi, the Congress decided to adopt a policy of non-
co-operation towards the new constitution. Three factors
accounted for this decision—the atrocities in the Punjab, the
attitude of Great Britain towards Turkey, and the inadequacy
of the new constitutional reforms.
Lord Irwin, the ex-Viceroy of India, holds the view that
every great step in England and in the Dominions towards
the development of responsible government has been accom-
panied at a greater or lesser interval by a corresponding
advance in India. As examples he has mentioned that the
Charter Act of 1833, the Indian Councils Act of 1861, the
Indian Councils Act of 1892 and the Indian Councils Act of
1909, have followed popular movements in England or in
other parts of the British Empire. There is considerable
force in what Lord Irwin says. But one should go further
and say that the Indian movement is organically connected
with the world movement for liberty. In India, as elsewhere,
the beginning of the nineteenth century was an important
landmark. The revolution of 1857 followed in the wake of
world revolution of 1848. The birth of the Indian National
Congress took place at a time, when there was a similar
upheaval in other parts of the world. The movement of
1905 closely followed the Boer War in South Africa and was
contemporaneous with the Russian revolution of 1905. The
attempted revolution during the Great War was a phenomenon
visible all over the world, at about the same time. Last but
not least, the movement of 1920-21 was contemporaneous
with the Sinn Fein Revolution in Ireland, with the fight of
the Turks for their independence, and it closely followed
revolutions which brought freedom to countries like Poland
and Czechoslovakia. There is no doubt therefore, that the
awakening in India is organically connected with the upheaval
all over the world during the last and the present century.